Sheila Harrell

I grew up and experienced first hand racism under “Jim Crow.” The separate schools, parks, pools, using the sign on the bus (wooden plague) that you inserted in the top of the seats on the bus which designated white from colored. The separate bathroom facilities in the department stores on Canal Street. We only received the used books from the White schools. I remember Black people were banded from sitting in Woolsworth or Mc Cory’s at the front counters. Many establishments only served Black people through little rear windows. All this through the eyes of a child. This was our invisible branding iron etched into our brain.